Title: President, Excelencia in Education
Sarita E. Brown serves as president of the non-profit Excelencia in Education, established with the goal of accelerating Latino success in higher education,. The national organization links research, policy and practice to serve Latino students. Brown has spent more than two decades at prominent national educational institutions and at the highest levels of government working to implement effective strategies to raise academic achievement and opportunity for low-income and minority students.
She started her career at the University of Texas at Austin by building a national model promoting minority success in graduate education. Coming to the nation’s capital in 1993 to work for the educational association, Brown was appointed as executive director of the White House Initiative for Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans under President Bill Clinton and U.S. Secretary of Education Richard Riley. She later applied her talents and experience to the not-for-profit sector, and in 2004, co-founded Excelencia in Education.
Brown is active in national educational organizations and serves on the board of directors for ACT Inc., the board of directors for the National College Access Network (NCAN), the advisory board for Catch the Next and the board of visitors for Old Dominion University. A much sought-after public speaker, Brown travels throughout the country to advocate for Latino success in higher education.
In 2009, she was honored with the Harold G. McGraw Jr. Prize in Education for her “innovative thinking, strong leadership and accomplishment by example” and received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters Degree from North Carolina State University. She holds a bachelor's of arts in ethnic studies and a bachelor's of science and master's of arts in communication from the University of Texas at Austin.
